Biography of Granville T. Ledgerwood

Granville T. Ledgerwood. The community around Beaumont in Butler County and also in Greenwood County had known Mr. Ledgerwood as a substantial farmer citizen and business man for over thirty years. As a farmer he attended strictly to his business, worked with all the power that was in him and in time acquired a well developed farm and sufficient property for his needs. Mr. Ledgerwood is now a resident of the Village of Beaumont, and among other interests is looking after the local postoffice as postmaster.

He comes of that fine stock of people that located in East Tennessee during pioneer times and subsequently showed their independence and love of the Union during the dark days of the Civil war. The Ledgerwood family came originally from England and settled in Virginia, later going to East Tennessee. Some members of family fought in the Revolutionary war. The name originated in 1127 in Berwickshire, England, derived from the lands of Ledgerwood in Berwickshire. The coat of arms are: Argent, a chevron engrailed between three wolves heads, erased sable, collared and ringed, or. The crest is: Ont of a mural coronet, or, a wolf’s head, sable, collared and ringed, or. Motto, “Spera in Deo.” On the maternal side the family is related to President Rutherford B. Hayes. Mr. Ledgerwood’s grandfather, Samuel Ledgerwood, was born in Union County, Tennessee, in 1811. He lived there all his life and died in 1881. His career was spent as a farmer. All his sons but one gave service in the Civil war and to the Union cause. He had four sons and one daughter. The oldest of the sons was Absom, father of the Beaumont postmaster. The next two were named Elliott and James. Colonel W. L., the youngest, was an officer in the Federal army and after the war became a noted politician in Eastern Tennessee, and lived for many years in Knoxville, where he died.

Absom Ledgerwood was born in Union County, Tennessee, in 1838. He responded to the call of his country in the time of need during the Civil war, and while serving with the Union army gave up his life as a sacriflce to the canse in 1862. Until he went into the army he followed farming in Eastern Tennessee. He was married there to Eliza Ann Skaggs. She was born in Union County in 1824 and died there in 1915, when ninety-one years of age. Her father, Charles Skaggs, was born in Union County in 1795, and his father and his oldest brother fought valiantly for the American cause in the War of 1812. Charles Skaggs was a farmer in East Tennessee and died in Union County in 1889, at the vencrable age of ninety-four. Mr. and Mrs. Absom Ledgerwood were the parents of four children: Taswell, who died in infancy; Orlando C., a farmer at Tishomingo, Oklahoma; Granville T.; and James L., a physician and surgeon at Tishomingo, Oklahoma. The mother of these children married for her second husband Harrison Harless, who was born in Union County, Tennessee, was a farmer there, served in the Union army during the Civil war and died in Union County. By this marriage there was only one child, a son who died in infancy.

Granville T. Ledgerwood was born in Union County, Tennessee, February 13, 1859. As a boy he had meager advantages in the way of education, since his part of the country was in a state of turbulence during and for some years after the war. He improved his advantages and finally managed to acquire a liberal education. Besides the rural schools he attended public school at Knoxville and for a time was a student in the State University at Knoxville. At the age of seventeen. Mr. Ledgerwood sought his opportunities further north. Going to McDonough County, Illinois, he worked at farming until he was twenty-four, was married then and brought his wife to Kansas to begin anew in a new country. It was in 1886 that he came to Greenwood County and located two and a half miles east of Beaumont. He developed his land and planted and harvested crops through the successive seasons until 1910. In that year he was appointed postmaster of Beaumont by President Taft, and still retains the office. Mr. Ledgerwood owned a farm of one hundred and sixty acres near Beanmont. His land is only a hundred rods from the first gas well which was brought in in that part of the state. His own home is east of the school house in Beaumont, and he owned another dwelling house south of the hardware store on Main Street and is owner of the post office building.

Mr. Ledgerwood is a republican, a member of the Christian Church, and is affiliated with Beaumont Lodge No. 275, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Beanmont Lodge No. 465, Ancient Order of United Workmen, carrying two thousand dollars life insurance in the latter order.

Mr. Ledgerwood was married in McDonough County, Illinois, to Miss Elizabeth Stapp, daughter of James and Mabala (Guy) Stapp. Her parents are both deceased. The father was not only a farmer but also a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ledgerwood. James, the oldest, became a farmer, and while living in East Tennessee was murdered in 1915 by a foreign degenerate. Vivian is a successful teacher, still living with her parents, and is a graduate of the University of Kansas with the class of 1906, holding the degree A. B. Arthur is a car builder at Columbus, Ohio, Howard graduated from the Norton High School, was a stndent in Washburn College at Topeka, and is now connected with the Walkover Boot and Shoe Store at Topeka.